Pawnbrokers see upside to online inventory reports

Wednesday

Jan 27, 2010 at 12:01 AMJan 27, 2010 at 5:36 PM

Bobby Dahlberg has been in the pawn business for 23 years, making 50 to 60 deals a day. In the past, the owner of Bobby’s on Broadway and Bobby’s West has taken down information from the seller of every item and faxed it to local police agencies. A city ordinance passed Monday, requiring local pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers to submit inventory reports online, will make his job easier.

Matt Williams

Bobby Dahlberg has been in the pawn business for 23 years, making 50 to 60 deals a day.

In the past, the owner of Bobby’s on Broadway and Bobby’s West has taken down information from the seller of every item and faxed it to local police agencies.

A city ordinance passed Monday, requiring local pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers to submit inventory reports online, will make his job easier.

“It’s just doing one thing instead of faxing it to multiple places,” he said. “Why would I want to make my life harder?”

Police said they are hoping the online database will help them track any stolen or lost items sold at Rockford pawn and secondhand shops.

Dallas-based LeadsOnline will provide the database to the Police Department for an annual fee, while there is no expense to business owners to access the site. The city received a four-year federal grant to pay for the service.

Dave Finley, president and CEO of LeadsOnline, said 1,100 police agencies in 38 states use the service.

Only a percentage of stolen items end up at pawn shops and secondhand stores, Finley said, and an online database makes it easier to track the items that do.

“Ninety-nine percent of the transactions are just fine, but once in a while someone will bring in an item that they do not own,” Finley said. “I believe a lot of crimes will be solved and a lot of crime victims will be pleased.”

Deputy Chief Greg Lindmark said logging fax sheets and manually checking missing items is not the most time-efficient way of tracking pawn purchases.

“We have eight books and thousands of pages of pawn sheets, which is manpower intensive and a very antiquated way of searching,” Lindmark said.

Police can now get descriptions of stolen items or serial numbers and get results based on that search.

Shaun Jones, owner of EZ Pawn & Accessories since May, signed up for LeadsOnline about two weeks ago.

He thinks submitting his inventory online will be more efficient than doing it manually.

“I don’t have anything bad to say about it,” Jones said. “It can’t do anything but help in cutting down on theft or people trying to sell things that are stolen.”

But some pawnbrokers are worried that the new ordinance is breaking the law.

James Vandiver, owner of Paymaster Pawn & Jewelers, does not feel comfortable sending client information to a third-party group.

Vandiver doesn’t have a problem with providing information on inventory to law enforcement agencies, but he said sending it through LeadsOnline would violate the federal Truth in Lending Act.

Vandiver said he would be held liable if his customers’ information was stolen online. He isn’t worried that having the online database will hurt profits, saying that only five items from his store were repossessed by police this past year.

“If it was legal for us to do it, we would be happy to do it,” Vandiver said. “We just don’t want to do something that we could be liable for later on.”

Matt Sigley, owner of Money Market Pawn, also is concerned about Web site security breaches. But he also worries that he will eventually have to pay a fee when the city’s grant money for LeadsOnline runs out.

“I would bet a month’s pay on it,” Sigley said.

City Attorney Kerry Partridge said the Truth in Lending Act would not apply to this situation because LeadsOnline would serve as an agent to the Police Department.

Partridge said both the current and former director of the Illinois Pawnbrokers Association have advocated for the use of LeadsOnline.

Partridge said about 60 letters were sent out to area pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers informing them of the requirement.

Businesses will have until Monday to register and could face up to a $750 fine a day for noncompliance.

Matt Williams can be reached at (815) 987-1389 or mwilliams@rrstar.com.

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